Mac Miller in His GO:OD AM Phase Is Even More Chill Than Before

"Sorry," says Mac Miller, whispering quietly into his phone. "That was my super. He wasn't very happy with me." The 23-year-old rapper now lives full-time in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood with his longtime girlfriend. Nowadays you can find him walking to get coffee every morning; he's adjusting to a life not spent racing go-karts with his stoner friends and throwing staged house parties in his "Studio City" mansion for a deliciously campy MTV2 reality show.

Miller—who says for two or three years was on drugs every day and at one point needed at to detox last summer at producer Rick Rubin's Malibu hippie haven—is also relatively sober for the first time in years. "Just having a routine for the day has been great to bring a sense of normalcy into my life," he says.

Two years removed from his critically acclaimed album, Watching Movies With the Sound Off, Miller has returned with GO:OD AM. The 17-track LP is Miller (born Malcolm McCormick)'s first since singing a major-label contract with Warner Bros. Records last October for an estimated $10 million The result of hundreds of hours of recording, GO:OD AM is also Miller's most upbeat, optimistic release in years. He sounds content, happy even. But as he told GQ, time has a way of altering even the most stubborn man's perspective. Says Miller: "It's all growth."

GQ: Where was your head at when you first started thinking about writing and recording this album?
Mac Miller: My mind was kind of all over the place during the creation of the album. That's why I'm pretty happy with the fact that it came out so cohesive.

"When I think back on Faces it's like thinking about a dream I had that lasted way too long."

The album charts your life then over the past few years.
That's the most beautiful thing about it to me: It covers a lot of ups and downs up and spans my life.

GO:OD AM is definitely an easier, if not slightly less affecting, listen than Watching Movies With the Sound Off. Was that intentional?
This album is fun to listen to and exciting for me, which is a little bit of a change to what I've done previously where it's been a little heavier. There are certain songs that make you think on this one, but I think all types of music are important. You need to have songs and moments in time where you're questioning everything. But then there are also times in life where it makes more sense to just enjoy yourself and not think too deeply. Those, I think, are the yin and yang. You can't have one without the other. You can't expect to appreciate moments of deep thought without appreciating moments of carefree enjoyment and confidence. It's the duality of man [laughs].

At what point in your career did you make it a point to begin exploring more weighty topics in your lyrics?
I was always that type of person. It's just growing the fearlessness to have it be in the music. And you just decide more and more that you care less and less about how big a record can be. That was really the transition. It's all growth. Everyone experiences everything.

Was there a sense of "Finally!" once critics came around and began praising your rapping skills after Watching Movies With the Sound Off?
You've gotta give people time. I'm not in a rush to have anybody understand everything about me. That's not why I do this. It's completely normal to me, the idea that everyone is not gonna understand what I'm doing right off the bat, you know? It's cool to have people appreciating what I do now but there's no negative energy surrounding it. It's more like, Hey, welcome to the party!

On a personal level, how have you been feeling? You seem more healthy and happy now living in New York.
Just the ability to get up and walk out the front door and leave the apartment and experience stuff has been really healthy for my day-to-day. Just doing stuff like going to the grocery store, honestly, and walking to get coffee and having a routine for the day has been great to bring a sense of normalcy into my life.

You'd become something of a recluse when living in L.A.
It's real easy. You have a lot of space in L.A. And it's a beautiful thing when you want it. But yeah, for me it was just all the more reason to stay in my own little world. I wanted to come back to reality. New York is a good place for that.

You've been so open about your struggle with drugs,admittingto previously "doingdrugs every single day, every second" and how you had an intern whose principal job it was toclean cocaine and bloodoff rolled-up dollar bills.It's brave.
I'm not here to hide anything. It's not frustrating. You've got to get to a place where you're strong enough to openly discuss decisions you've made in your life. You can't hide from it. Regardless of what it was, it's part of what makes me who I am today. There's no sense in feeling ashamed.

People were worried when they heard Faces, your 2014 mixtape epitomizing Mac Miller rapping in a drug-induced haze.
When I think back on Faces it's like going back and thinking about a dream I had that lasted way too long [laughs].

You've always been able to draw a clear parallel between your songs and where you're at in life.
My least favorite thing is when an artist only captures one emotion; you know they're going through multiple ones. As an artist I like to be a little more transparent.

Take me through your decision in signing to a major-label deal. Warner Bros. doesn't seem to have influenced you much in terms of your decision-making, which is always a great sign.
I feel blessed in that regard. I don't know how I would feel if I signed to a major and they made me change the way I do things. The only way I would do the major label is if I could remain in complete creative control. Who knows where I'm gonna go, or if someday I want to make these super-big records or whatever the journey is? I want to be able to decide that for myself. It comes off more organic that way.

Having matured in the public eye, what's your one major takeaway?
You realize your boundaries. There are different phases: Sometimes you're super-excited about everything, and sometimes you want it to just all go away. One thing I feel is I've done a pretty good job of is just letting everything be a guide. It's all been a learning experience.